Badass Entries

Thursday, June 29, 2006

I hate most of the eighties. Boring decade. Being born late in the 80s, my impressionable years were directly influenced by the passing wave that was the 80s. However, I grew up on 80s, and later the 90s, cartoons. For this, I love the period. These cartoons are masters at their trade, towering as Olympians behind the stable of boring, bland cartoons like Recess or Ed, Edd & Eddy. I loved this to death and I'm saddened that I can no longer activate the portal of stupidity and view them in their splendor. I'm currently tracking them down, VHS by coveted VHS, so I may still enjoy their fruits.

Most of them were wild ideas and incredibly corny if now viewed. But they hold a bit of nostalgia, pieces of something when creativity was actually valued. Now I have only a few gems like Aquateen Hungerforce and Samurai Jack to cling to. These shows are an extinct breed. Here's a list of some of the best animated shows ever from my childhood. The Top Five are:

1. Batman: The Animated Series - Intro - Ok, so this isn't exactly the eighties but it's still a cartoon series I watched a ton of as a kid. This is, without a doubt, the best cartoon series of all time. The Dark Knight is portrayed here as a serious badass; my favorite portrayal out of all the Batman media. The action was exciting and Batman kicked some serious butt. I'm really hoping I can collect all the DVD seasons that are out. I have lots of fond memories of watching Gotham's famed vigilante catch the latest criminal.

2. Transformers - Intro - To me, this is the icon of the 80s. I watched Transformers (the First Generation) a thousand times over. Who can beat the idea of machines, disguised from their true purpose, transforming into massive robots that beat the crap out of each other and blow a bunch of stuff up? Optimus Prime is still my hero and I know that Dino Bots kick serious butt. It is needless to say that I am stupidly excited about the new Transformers movie that is coming out. I adore this cartoon and I still watch The Transformers: The Movie in it's giant metal robot glory. I wish they'd get DVDs of the seasons out soon. Transformers, how I miss you. I miss you so much.

3. Exosquad - Season 1 Intro - Season 2 Intro - If one looked at these in a manner to judge just their craft and not the sentimental attached, then Exosquad would surely hold the second, if not first, placement. This was a masterful series, and has often been said to be the only Western rival to anime's hold on the older audience. It presented an awesome plot, action sequences and characters that older ages could enjoy. It managed to pull off great space opera drama. I only saw a dozen or so episodes but they were all captivating and enjoyable. I'm anxiously searching for any amount of media on Exosquad. If anyone ever finds a VHS of Exosquad, or even a torrent, let me know ASAP. I really would like to see the rest of the episodes, they made around 40. I have somewhere around three billion Exosquad toys.

4. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero - Intro
- Another defining symbol of the 80s, GI Joe is extremely cheesy and
wonderfully awesome. Troops had wildly colorful ornate uniforms, people
could run as fast as vehicles and incredibly not a single person died
in the series. Indeed, they even went so far as to show every
helicopter producing a parachuting pilot when shot down. They were
great fun. GI Joe gave us the awesome GI Joe PSAs that came on the end
of each cartoons. The infamous, hilarious parody PSAs that featured badass voice-overs are now all over the internet. Here'safewof myfavs. I own the second season of G.I. Joe, I hope to expand that sometime.

5. Inspector Gadget - Intro
- Man, talk about nostalgia. I hear the theme song to this thing and
I'm twelve years younger. I watched a lot of Inspector Gadget. Gadget
was always one of my childhood heroes, standing tall with Optimus Prime
and Batman. I always thought the idea of having a typewriter that could unfold from a head was totally badass. Yet another show that I greatly desire on DVD.

Check below the fold for more cartoon series, listed in no particular order.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

I just watched several episodes of Lost and I'm floored. What an incredibly awesome show. If you haven't seen it, go see it. Now.

The first rented disc was so amazing, I'm buying the DVD Boxed Set tomorrow. This becomes my second favorite show, right under 24 and right above Firefly. Truly, one of the better things television has produced. Very kickass.

I went to the Dentist yesterday. Not fun. Still in a bit of pain. However, I'm pushing through to bring to you many things of interest. We'll start with the most important.

So today we see some actual news on the front of electronic gaming. Unless you live under a rock, which I know is the popular thing know, or unless you are Hitler, you probably know about the Big Three. No, not the politics but rather the Gaming Consoles. Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and the Revolution. Most the consoles had been revealed, even the Xbox 360 receiving a release date of Nov. 22, except for the Nintendo Revolution. It was mysterious entity, lurking about the room in a dark corner while everyone peered at it out of the corner of their eyes and whispered quietly. Well, today, we got a little bit of news about it.

The controller. And the controller is a real "WTF?" moment. Evidently 1up has the scoop, which you can get by clicking here. The problem with this controller is I can easily see someone picking it up and attempting to control the television volume with it, only getting more and more frustrating as the remote fails to function. A game controller should look like a game controller, not a DVD remote. It talks about how the controller has gyros and little sensors that measures where the controller is pointing at on-screen. And how you can swing it like a sword to control said virtual sword on the screen.

Do you have any idea how stupid that would look? Four geeks, swinging away with remote controls, screaming and cussing? I mean, I already hate the kind of people who jerk their controller around as if the signals will be sent down the wire and inform the car they are controlling to not slam into the wall but instead perform a 180. Now these people have a legitimate excuse. I predict much smacking of people as wild swings are performed.

Other newies:

Google launched their new blog searching tool a few days ago. Pretty sweet. It merits a checking out.

I've been watching a bunch of King of Queens and it's actually a pretty good show. Totally unrealistic, for the big, dumb white guy gets major babe-o-rama who thinks he can do no wrong, but still pretty funny. The lead actor, Kevin James (Hitch), is hilarious. What's really funny about the show is that Kevin Jame's character, Doug, is like my Dad incarnate. I recommend it for something kinda light-hearted, good in-between Battlestar Galatica. An interesting note of Trivia is that Will Smith himself selected Kevin James to co-star with him on Hitch. Will Smith is a major fan of King of Queens. Will Smith is a Unicorn, so this is a good endorsement.

Speaking of TV Shows, I'm just about to go put on the First Season of Lost. I rented it and want to see if its as good as everyone has been claiming. I'll let you know what I think.

And just something to chew on. While in the theater to see The Brothers Grimm, I was waiting around, like all Unicorns do, for my friends to buy themselves some popcorn. I happened to notice a movie poster for a 50 Cent movie called "Get Rich or Die Tryin'". In little sub-titles was the words "At the end of the day, what will you hold on to?"

Now, you are assuming that 50 Cent was clutching something appropriate, like a gun, money, maybe some weed or some nice booty. But no. What this hardcore, gangsta' rapper was clutching was a baby.

A baby.

Yea, what the hell indeed. I'm not sure if he was planning to kill it or snort it or something. But, whatever...